Vietnam’s shift from a centrally planned to a market economy has transformed the country from one of the poorest in the world into a lower middle-income country. Vietnam now is one of the most dynamic emerging countries in East Asia region.
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The global economy is showing signs of
recovery, but at an uneven pace; global growth is expected
to rise modestly to 2.6 percent in 2014, and an average 3.3
percent... Show More + in 201517. The gradual strengthening of activity
in the Euro Area and especially the US will boost demand for
exports from developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP), helping
the region sustain its growth performance. There are early
signs of firming up of economic recovery in Vietnam. GDP
growth picked up to a relatively brisk 6.2 percent (y-o-y)
in the third quarter of 2014, contributing to an overall
growth rate of 5.6 percent for the first nine months of the
year. Credit growth continues to come in below target,
hampering the State Bank of Vietnam's efforts to carry
out credit expansion to support economic growth. The
Government has taken some important measures in 2014 to
improve business conditions, which are expected to bear
fruit from 2015 onward. The Government issued Resolution 19
(March 18, 2014), which prioritizes shortening the time for
processing and completion of administrative procedures,
reducing administrative costs, and strengthening
transparency and accountability of state administrative
agencies. The Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP)
provides a comprehensive framework to identify financial
system vulnerabilities and develop appropriate policy
responses. Recognizing its importance, in July 2012 the
Government of Vietnam invited the World Bank and the IMF to
initiate an FSAP for Vietnam. In recent years the
Vietnamese economy had shown signs of corporate and
financial distress, and slowdown in GDP growth. In response
to this, the government announced a comprehensive reform
program designed to address the problems faced by the
financial and corporate sectors. The FSAP provides a broad
set of policy recommendations that can be used to
operationalize the SEDP and the banking restructuring
program. The recommendations include recapitalization
plans, the workout of NPLs, regulatory and other reforms,
and the temporary extension of the safety net. Show Less -

Ratings for the Agriculture
Competitiveness Project for Vietnam were as follows:
outcomes were moderately satisfactory, risk to development
outcome was moderate, Bank... Show More + performance was moderately
satisfactory, and Borrower performance was moderately
satisfactory. Some lessons learned included: projects
designed to accommodate interventions in a wide range of
commodities, technologies, and value chains avoid the risk
of picking the wrong winners and enable considerable
flexibility in the face of changing market circumstances.
Facilitating increased private service provision, contract
farming, and more multi-dimensional public-private
collaborative initiatives in agriculture requires certain
types of experience and sets of soft skills which are not
readily available at the level of provincial (let alone
district) agricultural departments. Egalitarian distribution
of infrastructure upgrades is a natural response to social
and political pressures on government, yet this limits the
scope for synergies with other (technical, financial, etc.)
interventions related to agricultural value chains. Greater
impact may be achieved through the clustering of
interventions in certain locales - featuring high growth
potential or especially difficult circumstances. Some of the
most valuable results from interventions which demonstrate
and promote institutional or other innovations may be
difficult to gauge through traditional quantitative
indicators. Promoting complex relationships between farmer
organizations (FOs) and agribusiness companies should
normally be done in stages. Strong FOs provide the basis for
a more balanced partnership, in terms of negotiating prices
and other terms; and provide for a more efficient
implementation of project-related activities, including
communications, training, procurement, etc. Show Less -

The development objective of the
Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Project for Vietnam
is to contribute to the deployment and implementation of the
agricultural... Show More + restructuring plan (ARP) by providing capacity
building and organizational development to the sector and
re-organizing production to increase value addition and
sustainability of rice and coffee sub-sectors in two key
commodity production zones of Vietnam such as Mekong delta
and Central Highlands regions. Some of the negative impacts
and mitigation measures include: (1) consulting those
persons affected by a potential project on feasible
resettlement and restoration measures; (2) providing the
project affected persons with options for resettlement and
restoration; (3) allowing them to participate in planning
and selecting the options; (4) providing compensation rates
at full replacement cost for the losses; (5) selecting areas
of resettlement so that benefits and services are provided,
at the minimum levels, the same levels as in the locations
they used to reside; (6) providing allowances, training and
income - generating support to facilitate the displacement;
(7) identifying vulnerable groups and providing special
assistance to these groups; and (8) establishing
institutional and organizational structures to support the
process until it is successfully completed. Show Less -

The development objective of the
Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Project for Vietnam
is to contribute to the deployment and implementation of the
agricultural... Show More + restructuring plan (ARP) by providing capacity
building and organizational development to the sector and
re-organizing production to increase value addition and
sustainability of rice and coffee sub-sectors in two key
commodity production zones of Vietnam such as Mekong delta
and Central Highlands regions. Some of the negative impacts
and mitigation measures include: (1) providing capacity
building (CB) and organizational development (OD) to
ministry of agriculture and rural development (MARD),
selected provincial department of agriculture and rural
development (DARDs), other public sector agencies, and value
chain actors (including banks); (2) increasing rice farmers
income, reducing negative environmental impacts from rice
intensified farming, and enhancing the competitiveness of
the rice sector; (3) increasing coffee farmers incomes and
reducing negative environmental impacts of intensive coffee
production via adoption of sustainable farming practices;
and (4) providing necessary training, equipment, facilities,
and operating costs for the performance of monitoring and
evaluation (M and E), financial management, procurement,
long-term and short-term technical assistance for project
management, developing an M and E system for the project in
line with the automated teller machine (AMT) established by
ministry of planning and investment. Show Less -

The development objective of the
Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Project for Vietnam
is to contribute to the deployment and implementation of the
agricultural... Show More + restructuring plan (ARP) by providing capacity
building and organizational development to the sector and
re-organizing production to increase value addition and
sustainability of rice and coffee sub-sectors in two key
commodity production zones of Vietnam such as Mekong delta
and Central Highlands regions. Some of the negative impacts
and mitigation measures include: investments are consulted
with benefited communities. For example, in Dong Thap,
whether the project would invests on a low embankment to
protect the existing storage facility or finance the
elevation of existing ground to above flood level should be
voted by local community; provide information on the
recommended quantity of water used coffee watering, timing
of fertiliser application, and solutions ofr reuse of crop
by-products in an effective way, advice on the quantity,
distance and types of trees to be planted to shield coffee
trees; design of embankment include staircases on canal
slopes at certain intervals to maintain canal water access;
and the project should support planting of trees that
provide shades for coffee trees to reduce evapotranspiration
from coffee leaves under the sun; and Investments on
infrastructure such as improving acces roads to farmland,
irrigation canals, medium and low voltages, construction of
rice storage facilities should be financed 100 percent by
the project. Cooperatives can contribute in the form of land
donations for storage construction. Show Less -

The development objective of the
Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Project for Vietnam
is to contribute to the deployment and implementation of the
agricultural... Show More + restructuring plan (ARP) by providing capacity
building and organizational development to the sector and
re-organizing production to increase value addition and
sustainability of rice and coffee sub-sectors in two key
commodity production zones of Vietnam such as Mekong delta
and Central Highlands regions. Some of the negative impacts
and mitigation measures include: investments are consulted
with benefited communities. For example, in Dong Thap,
whether the project would invests on a low embankment to
protect the existing storage facility or finance the
elevation of existing ground to above flood level should be
voted by local community; provide information on the
recommended quantity of water used coffee watering, timing
of fertiliser application, and solutions ofr reuse of crop
by-products in an effective way, advice on the quantity,
distance and types of trees to be planted to shield coffee
trees; design of embankment include staircases on canal
slopes at certain intervals to maintain canal water access;
and the project should support planting of trees that
provide shades for coffee trees to reduce evapotranspiration
from coffee leaves under the sun; and Investments on
infrastructure such as improving acces roads to farmland,
irrigation canals, medium and low voltages, construction of
rice storage facilities should be financed 100 percent by
the project. Cooperatives can contribute in the form of land
donations for storage construction. Show Less -

This economy profile for Doing Business
2015 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for Vietnam.
To allow for useful comparison, the profile also provides
data for... Show More + other selected economies (comparator economies) for
each indicator. Doing Business 2015 is the 12th edition in a
series of annual reports measuring the regulations that
enhance business activity and those that constrain it.
Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for
2015 Vietnam ranks 78. A high ease of doing business ranking
means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the
starting and operation of a local firm. Doing Business
presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and
the protection of property rights that can be compared
across 189 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and over
time. Doing Business measures regulations affecting 11 areas
of the life of a business known as indicators. Ten of these
areas are included in this year's ranking on the ease
of doing business: starting a business, dealing with
construction permits, getting electricity, registering
property, getting credit, protecting minority investors,
paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts,
and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures labor
market regulation, which is not included in this year's
ranking. The data in this report are current as of June 1,
2014 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover
the period from January to December 2013). Show Less -